The University of Surrey is a global university with a world-class research profile and an enterprising spirit. Inventive and forward-thinking, our heritage shows a recurring theme of going our own way, doing things differently – and achieving notable results. Most recently, Surrey achieved sixth place in The Guardian’s 2015 UK university league table and has risen to twelfth place in The Complete University Guide 2015 league table.

The University’s origins can be traced back to 1894, with a commitment to first-rate academic activity and to real-world solutions. Today, we still remain true to those goals and have an ambitious strategic agenda to be in the top 100 universities in the world by 2017.

Surrey is always looking for ways for its academics to engage with the public and show the relevance of research to the wider world. The Conversation will provide opportunities to do this.

Research with impact

Ground-breaking research at Surrey is bringing direct benefits to many spheres of life – helping industry to maintain its competitive edge and creating improvements in the areas of health, medicine, space science, the environment, communications, defense and social policy.

The results of the UK Universities’ Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008, confirmed that the University of Surrey continues to consolidate its strength as a world-class, research-intensive institution. Nearly 90% of Surrey’s research activity was rated either ‘world class’ or ‘internationally excellent’.

An international outlook

The University of Surrey is committed to being a world leading, international university. Our goal is to work with international partners to tackle the global challenges we face. We actively explore opportunities for high-quality joint research with government, industry and charitable organisations.

As part of the University Global Partnership Network (UGPN), whose members include North Carolina State University and The University of São Paulo, we are engaged in a new approach to partnerships, focusing on deep engagement with a small number of institutions across the world.